With advancements in digital media capture and storage technology, it has become much easier for the average user to create and store media files (e.g., digital images, videos, sound clips, etc.). To this end, today's average user takes several pictures a day on her smart phone, whether she does so to capture a memorable moment, like a picture of her child, or to remember the parking stall number where she parked her car. Users also tend to keep most, if not all, of the digital media files that they create or otherwise obtain (e.g., download) primarily because there are no practical constraints on the amount of available storage space. Moreover, the introduction of web-based storage services (often referred to as “cloud” storage services) has made it even easier for users to store massive collections of media files in “the cloud” where storage space is even less of a concern as compared to personal storage devices.
However, as the number of media files in a given collection grows, it becomes difficult to find the most important media file(s) within the collection. In general, large media file collections are unmanageable due to the fact that organizational schemes offer little more than arranging media files by creation date. Consequently, users have to sort through a large number of “unimportant” media files to locate the important media files in their personal collection. This process of locating important media files is inefficient and otherwise time consuming, leading to poor user experience and the potential to overlook media files that are of interest to the user.